I apologize for the Mystery Gift, it was going to be a really cool pokemon that I discovered but it ended up glitching and this weird pokemon showed up called MissingNo. So enjoy that ;)

PTD 2 a New Beginning!

We finally made it all the way back to Pallet Town on Pokemon Tower Defense, I'm pretty excited to finish the story levels and to focus more on PTD2. PTD one will not be receiving any drastic changes from it's current form as you guys might have noticed. A lot of the suggestions and ideas that you guys contributed will be pushed to PTD 2 instead. I really want PTD 2 to feel like a big upgrade from PTD 1, almost like how the original gold and silver felt like after red and blue. What this will mean for the game is smaller buttons! What I mean with smaller buttons is that the original game was meant for the Android marketplace and the closest competition was a Tower Defense game that is still pretty popular on the Android Marketplace that featured a really plain layout in the game. Black background with big buttons. For the sequel the main target for the game won't be mobile devices so you will see menus and interfaces that have the computer in mind. Speaking of the computer! They have keyboards! So expect a lot of hotkeys for things like changing your moves and switching your pokemon. The next possible change that you guys asked about the whole time for PTD 1 is different pokeballs!

Pokeballs

Okay so like I said before you guys always asked about having different pokeballs for PTD 1, and I thought it was a great idea until I looked at how the game worked. Now as we all know once the pokemon is weakened you use the pokeball (which is unlimited in PTD 1) and you catch it. The first thing I thought about for better pokeballs (great ball, ultra ball) was to increase the percentage that a pokemon life would be to be considered weakened. But this would make the game very easy if the ultra ball you only needed to bring a pokemon down to 50% of their life to catch them.

Now in the Nintendo games, pokeballs had a chance to not capture a pokemon this wasn't automatic like it is in PTD 1. is that something you want to see in PTD 2? What I had in mind is that pokeballs don't automatically capture the pokemon but instead it plays out the animation like the game and the pokemon can escape, this makes adding other pokeballs easier since they would improve your chance at capturing a pokemon, also some pokemon can only be captured with different pokeballs. On a side not special pokemon that have red bars (like shinies) would still be instant capture like they are now.

Along with this in PTD 2 you won't have unlimited pokeballs, you will have to buy them when you start the level (if you want to). To go along with that change leveling up will no longer cost money and be automatic. This is something that has been requested for a long time and these changes it will make it happen.

So tell me do you want pokeballs to have a chance at capturing a pokemon and have different pokeballs or just have one type and have it be 100% chance once weakened? Vote on the poll and have a lasting impact on the game.

New Servers

So we all hate when the server is slow and when you get an error page in the trading center (trust me I hate it too!) So using the funds that we get from SnD Coin purchase from amazing users like you ;) and from Ad Revenue we are currently paying for a Virtual Private Server which is the next step for us in improving the speed of our pages. Now the process of moving everything to the new server is going to take some time and there might even be a maintenance period where nobody will be able to play our games, but I'm trying to do the best that I can to make it smooth so you won't lose time or the time will be minimal. Just know that we are doing our best to make thing work better around here, using your contributions (which we are very grateful for and appreciate very much!)

Weekly Progress

For this week we will again have a story level, new TMs, and a new Mystery Gift! Along with more PTD 2 items which I didn't get a chance to do last week. Also around the middle of the week there will be a first look video for PTD 1.

That is all I have for today so let me know what you think! If you have any questions about PTD 1 make sure to check out the forums and chat rooms to find answers before you post them below it helps you get a faster answer and it helps me be able to take care of the less common comments/suggestions/questions.

Sam can you please add a little title in comments or the blog that states only gen1 Pokemon will be in ptd1 with the exceptions you made and only ptd2 will have gen2(and maybe 1) because it is annoying seeing comments wanting other gen Pokemon while we ALL keep saying only gen1 on ptd1

Sam, this is an idea for PTD2 and something we didn't have in PTD1: in the original game we fought a rival that was our neighbour from the starter city, we saw each other progress and fight each time we met, so, it's possible that we can see this in PTD2? I mean, beside the main storyline.

I chose "yes" on the poll before even reading the blog. Which is what I'm sure a lot of people did out of fear of not catching pokemon. However, after reading the blog, I love the idea of 1. not costing money to level up. 2. shinies still instant and always guaranteed 3. the animation from the gameboy games.

So, now I wish to change my vote to "No, it should be different"

The point is that I'm sure there are a lot of people like me that hastily jumped to conclusions without reading and therefore you should consider it when weighing the poll results.

ok... free (and automatic) level up is a great idea, but realize that somebody would rather non-automatic level up, if you want a certain pokemon to be on a certain-fixed level (e.g. I'm greatly interested in keeping all my pay-day-persians at lvl 70, because if I level up more, their attacks will deal more damage, defeating enemies easier, so I won't get as much money as I actually get on certain levels, such as in route 15, where I actually get (using also a roaring arcanine) 60-70k coins). If automatic level up is going to be added, please also add a way to get freeze the pokemon level (it could be a menu option called with yes/no options, in which no means that if your pokemon get his exp bar full, it will level up after u click a button called "level up" in the option menu of these pokemon; or also could be a holding item called that will prevent your pokemon to get experience untill you unequip it)

About balls... I don't really matter if they're like now (only pokeball with 100% rating in red bar) or in a new type of balls that allows u to capture pokemon with greater HP %, but with smaller % success; anyway, realize that if u put non-infinite balls, there's a great risk to get out of balls at the moment u would see an interesting pokemon (a shiny or a rare one, for example).

I'd also thought of adding a new option menu called , that would allow you to repeat the same level as much times as you wish (with a cap of 50 times), at max. speed, (x4 speed), by placing your pokemon in the same position every time; these option would only work in training levels (levels with no candies or similar objects). I put an example so u could understand. You click on the option menu, write "40" on a text box next these option menu, then u go to "Pallet Town" level, and put your pokemon-towers on their places and finish the level (after 60 waves). Instead of going back to the "choose level" panel, you'll start again on "Pallet Town" (x4 speed mode), all your towers will be already placed in the same squares that they were and you'll be able to do nothing but wait to level fininsh 40 more times (u won't be able to capture wild pokemon, heal your towers, change their attacks...), in these period, if your pokemon get all exp they need to level up, they'll increase their level (if they haven't reached the cap level, or if you haven't restricted their level or exp.). Think of that; auto training would allow much people train their pokemon while working or studying!!!

PS: u can change your vote, anon. And also, I add that I've read the post and my vote is still NO, because we would lose a lot of pokemon, specially if a restricted number of balls per level is added

sam my webpage glitched and i got a weird thing were i saw this page in creation there was ZERO COMMENTS and all it said was sorry for the mystery gift and so i went ahead and wrote first or second. so I WAS FIRST if none else believes me well sam will because he can see all the comments.

Personally I think a compromise might be nice. Something like Pokeballs catch at 5% without fail, great balls 10% without and Ultra balls at 15% without fail. Also, we would have to buy the Poke/great/ultra balls, except Pokeballs could be slightly cheaper than in the normal game (100 maybe?). It seems like a decent compromise in my eyes, but it's up to others to judge if they like it or not. Also another issue, will Missingno. be able to be traded to PTD2? It didn't exist in gold/silver/crystal, so I was just wondering about it.

My opinion on the pokeballs: the other balls will be quite expensive (like great ball =P= 10000000 [that's 10 million]) but will act as an upgrade of the original unlimited pokeball. They will still be instant catch but the health bar still has to be lowered to the amount corresponding to the current ball. The master ball might be a problem, though, because people can just go around completing levels by catching all the pokemons they see. You may want to make the master ball's price "ridiculously high" like =P= 1000000000000 (that's one trillion pokedollars) to stun even hackers. P.S. =P= is pokedollars.

Is it possible to add a watch list for pokemon that you want to get on that level? e.g. on the route where you can catch Eevee you sometimes miss it, but with the watch list you could add Eevee on there and when an Eevee appears, there could be a little alert thing like what happens when a shiny Pokémon appears!

Please include this in the next game as it will certainly help people get a Pokémon they want!

1: Really glad you added Missingno. into the game. I love it. Mine's already hit level 71. Also flattered that you used the sprites I made (though you did it a little different to how I pictured; I always envisioned the standard Missingno. sprite as a side view, with that black dot surrounded by the white space, on the leftmost part, to be an eye, and the purple shapes beneath it to be a mouth, but it's your game).

4: What I had in mind for the various Poké Balls is more or less like the first idea you discarded (different balls begin to work at different HP percentages), but the catch being that Great and Ultra Balls wouldn't be unlimited, and you'd have to buy them at the Poké Mart.

5: Are we getting regular, normal, not-Shiny, not-Shadow Mew in the game anytime soon? Or at all?

I think it would be really cool to have that REAL pokeball capture animation(it would make it more fun!) rather than just catch automatically(they can just have automatic in the hacked version if you don't want a challenge; i guess). Also, if we have the REAL pokeball capture animation it would make it MUCH more stratigic(which i would love!)

I doubt it. Since it says mystery gifts, it probably means either shiny and shadow Missingno or shiny, shadow, and regular electabuzz or some combination of those. Besides electabuzz, the only things left are the regular Mew, the three types of Mewtwo and the birds and he'd never give us those things without atleast a challenge level.

about that server change and the resulting downtime : please make a change to the game so that it can launch and play on it's own (local saves) until the servers are back online, this will prevent everybody from losing progress and caught pokemons

I would prefer the Pokeball option where better pokeballs can catch pokemon with higher health. or you could use a health/level-of-pokemon algorithm do determine when a pokemon is catchable. I would hate it when you have to have luck to actually catch a pokemon. Especially in PTD, where not catching it would mean that your towers will kill the pokemon, before you can try again.Also, just make us buy pokeballs with pokedollars. Then we would have actual use for the money, and you could make the better balls so expensive that the people would think twice before using them.

Sam, will you still make changes for the PTD1 marketplace, or will we have to wait for PTD2?Because there are a few aditional options that would make the trading much more easy:

1. For "search for a Pokemon you want", the option to only show pokemon that have requests. (it sucks to have to guess what the other wants, and the ones with requests are hard to find)2. For "Search for which pokemon other trainers want" the option to only show shiny pokemon. (It takes alot of time to load the site and then scroll around)3. Or the ability to filter out pokemon you arent interested in (so we dont have to load all the 300 golem and tentacool requests)

This should not be to hard to implement, but would save the user alot of time, also less image loading from the server. So even if this options dont find a way in PTD, please remember them for PTD2.

oh come on. why shiny missingno? i miss the avatars. plz dont add a shiny missingno. it just doesnt seem right at all. try adding more avatars. and also add more pokeballs on ptd2. dont give into those who want the old style. they need to learn how to adapt to change instead of expecting things to b easy again.

I think Pokéballs should work like this: You have unlimited, but just like what you did with the Potions you have to get an upgrade for them. I recommend putting the upgrade for Great Balls in the shop for an as of yet undetermined price. Make Ultra Balls the prize for completing some kind of quest in game, which I personally would like to see more of in PTD2 since you didn't add any new ones since the shiny Voltorb one. Then the Master Ball off of turning the final level in the story which is going to be super hard already into a challenge level and managing to beat that.

Good thing I didn't choose to put this on Twitter...

Now that obtaining the different Pokéballs is out of the way next is how they work.Just like in the real games every Pokémon should have a catch rate. Now I wouldn't make every catch rate different, just things like Sentret and such have really low catch rates so that a Pokéball is pretty much guaranteed to be caught with a Pokéball once weakened, and something like Raikou wouldn't. Make all Pokémon fit into four levels. Caught when weakened with Pokéball, when with Great Ball, when with Ultra Ball, or for that super powerful legendary with a Master Ball.

Could you change the design of the blog??? The reason I ask is because every time that the blog goes over 200 comments then I can't see the comments past 200; the blog says it's loading the comments, but it just sits there. Because of that, I can't see what is being talked about or if my comments have replies. Could you maybe combine the page system of the previous blog with the comment/reply system of the current blog???

Could you make it so that hacked pokemon don't fit the matched requirements? If I request a shiny mew, and only a shiny mew, if someone offers that, it'll fit the auto requirements and end the trade. That shouldn't happen if it's hacked.

Second suggestion. Could you make the graphic for shadow pokemon in the pokedex show up better? The dark purple is hard to make out against the black background.

hi Sam i know that the poke ball vote is going to end up that their should be one type of poke ball that always works on green bar Pokemon but i have an idea i think you should make the master ball the great ball and the ultra ball for rare and legendary Pokemon like lapras and eevee for example it ruins the fell of a Pokemon game its to easy i mean if the poke ball always works it takes from the game i mean hew ever cote a legend poke with a poke ball it just does int happen i guess its just my opinion no matter what you chose i love the game man keep doing what your doing

hey sam there is a glitch on route 2 i started a new game and i go to route 2 and just as the pokemon are about to come out the game goes back to the main screen it only works if you havent already beaten route 2 plz fix im stuck

If you get the wild pokemon to a red life bar (and maybe make it less health than normal) they should be instant catch with any pokeball

But you should implement all pokeballs and make it possible to catch pokemon with with green health but those ones have a chance of breaking out of the pokeball so status conditions and weakening would help

1. Normal Pokeball can only be used to catch pokemon weaker than you highest level pokemon (Red HP)2. Greatball can be used to cath pokemon no more than 5 levels higher than you (Red HP)3. Ultraball can catch pokemon at any level but still has to be (Red HP)4. Mabey you can add elemtary balls like Aqua Ball or Lava Ball as ¨Quest¨ items you obtain as extra items for doing ¨quests¨

My point is that despite the poll, you should find a way to implement the Great/Ultra balls.

Dude love the game it's so far the best pokemon game i've played and i thought XD was cool but could you make like a code for the shinys/shadows/legendary's so on and have a code that lasts more than a week? no offense but tired of having to run around solving riddles and looking on the internet last minute codes it hard bro but the games cool looking forward to TD2 :D!!!!!

I have a good idea. Maybe there would be Pokedollar incentives for using lower grade pokeballs.EG:Rattata: 2 pokedollars per levelPokeBall: x5Great Ball: x2Ultra Ball: x1Master Ball: x0So a level 50 Rattata caught with a PokeBall would give 500 PokeDollars.

Anonymous #2, there is no reason to insult someone for a different opinion.Also hbluecrimson does have a point. There is a big diffence between PTD and the RPG.In the rpg, if the pokemon broke free, you could just try again and again and again, it did only cost you pokeballs(and some damage to your pokemon). But in the PTD, if the pokemon breaks free, the game will continue and your Poketowers will kill the pokemon you are trying to catch, before you have the chance to try another pokeball. I can see that becoming frustrating really easily. We will get thousands of people crying over killed shinies, just because they had bad luck.

Is the mystery gift shiny missing no? Don't care. Sam!!! CHANGE THE POKEBALL!!!!!!The people out there who voted for keep pokeball like PTD1 are LAZY. They just don't want the pokeball to miss. I think if you keep the pokeball like PTD1 you don't know what your missing in PTD2.I also want to know when are you going to have more avatars and electabuzz? Also, in the avatar chat, can you change the background and if your name has somthing like #@!$%^&*()_+ and others, it does not show up. Anyways, BEST GAME EVER!!!!

Ethan$ p.s. will you be offering on other people's pokemon up for trade?p.p.s someone look up Ethan$

Hey Sam I know that PTD 1 is coming to an end, but will we ever be able to catch every pokemon from the first 150 in the game? I know they are almost all included as of now but I noticed that Seel is only a mystery gift pokemon as it currently stands. Also will there be any changes to the difficulty/grinding required to beat the game as a new player? Anyways this game has come a long way since I started playing last April so kudos to you for making it all happen :)

For all those who chose Meh, change to No. For those who chose Yes, think twice and change it to No. Don't be lazy; games like these you aren't supposed be like that. And Sam, an Ultra Ball wouldn't catch a pokemon at 50%. Also choosing NO will make things more like Pokemon.

I disagree with you there. Let's say for the sake of things a pokeball catches at 20%. A greatball could catch at 30%, and an ultraball could catch at 40%. These pokeballs are upgraded, you have unlimited of them and if you get a greatball you no longer loose the pokeball. Then comes in the inventory. In the middle of the level, you can open up your inventory, and have stuff like heavy balls, which you have a limited amount of and are bought at the pokemart. They catch normal pokemon at 20%, but catch the prefered type (heavy for heavy ball, etc.) at 50&. I've already thought twice, and I think I could say the same for you. People who chose Meh, choose one or the other, or don't vote at all.

I'll still chose yes, imagine if you found a .1% of the time pokemon, but it escpaed every pokeball and walked off screen? In pokemon you mostly have as long as you need to catch the pokemon, but here if it walks to the end it is gone

-though i agree with the challenge of making pokeballs sometimes fail, i think it will get MANY people frustrated wen trying to catch a rare pokemon and then the pokeball fails. People will become angry. Leaving it the same way it is now is probably best.-On the day/night situation, people wanted a map where shadow pokemon could be caught. well y not make Shiny Pokemon come during the day and Shadow come during the night.

i think that you should just do 2 sotry levels a week until the game is done.mainly because it seems like you are much more enthusiastic about ptd2 and htd. also since there really isnt much other to do you could get finished faster. i mean i like the tm's and all but i kinda want the story to be finished because i want the challenge of completing the pokedex.

Can you put this in the OPTIONS Menu? Like click on the Options Menu, and click Automatic On/Off.

This way automatics can have what they want, yet un-automatics can have what they want(start off with which ever wins the poll though and people will have to switch in the options nenu for a different Pokeball Option)! :)

Where are all the Lengendary Levels in which you can catch each Legendary? You can out each legendary in one level to make it quicker(just make it so that if we kill them, they can reapear in the level to try and catch them again(DON'T PLAN to put this in PTD2 yet)...

Sam I think that you should go back on the game and make it slightly easier on the levels that were a while ago. I know everyone wants a challenge even if they have level 90s but it makes it impossible for the rest of us. So I feel we shouldn't need level 80s for the 6th gym and that you should change it for people just starting so they don't get scared off by the amount of grinding needed to be done. I know you made it hard for the people with super high level pokemon to have a challenge, but I think that making the early levels a little easier wouldn't hurt anyone that's already at the 7th gym with level 90s.

P.S. I don't think you should do the same level thing in PTD2. In the real games you maybe lvl 60s by the elite 4, not lvl 100s. To get them to level 100 is a lot of grinding after you beat the game, not before. If you don't this here, at least do it in PTD2. Anyway huge fan and great game Sam!

I agree. When starting a New Game, you have to do a huge amount of grinding, or trade for some high-level pokemon. That will scare alot of new players of. After finnishing PTD1 Sam should get over everything again and polish the difficulty, so there is a linear difficulty rise. But i think he will do that anyway, dont forget this game is still in Alpha version.

i voted yes for a good reason. in pokemon (the real game) i had MY FIRST SHINY!!!!! i was so exited but i only had a few good pokeballs and a lot of normals. the pokemon sadly had recoil and when i was trying to catch it IT DIED! i was so sad and so from that point on i always thought that way. if anyone else doesnt want that to happen then vote yes too.

There was an exception that Sam didn't post clearly that shinies would still have an instant capture, and I doubt there will be a Pokemon that is catchable that has a recoil move, so this isn't a good reason people should vote Yes. I'm still choosing No.

Don't make us buy poke balls at the start of the level, it would be stupid to guess how many Pokemon we will want to catch beforehand. The catch rate should be the same as PTD1 since this game is a fast paced game and the Pokemon games are not.

i really loved the pokeballs concept, I think it should be better that way. But what I hate, is that most people voted for 1 pokeball, maybe because they want the game to be easy, but I support the pokeballs idea a lot because this games are suppose to be hard not easy, and making different pokeballs would make the game much more interesting and it would introduce a new feature for raising money instead for just Moves or the Game Corner.

Please make the pokeballs! Dont pay attention to all those who wants this game to be easy!

i like the idea of new poke balls but with the current system i dont feel they would work cuz you have to get pokemon in to the red health bar before you can even throw a poke ball so that puts people playing the non hacked version at a disadvantage but if you let us throw a ball at any point and had hp play a role in how likely u are to capture the pokemon along with the new poke balls this would work

How about satisfying all partys on this one Sam and make a difficulty option easy mode could leave the pokeballs as they are now, but normal or above could have the pokeball chances much like the gen games. You could also add in some things on the harder difficulty for hardcore gamers and keep easy mode easy for casual ones

What program you used to make your games? I'm interested in making my own Tower Defense based game. Also, Masterballs should be auto-catch and more caves should be created. Hopefully after PTD2 you could try a MMO-TD game.

i doubt you'll see this but i think instead of green health and red health, there could be a middle yellow. pokeballs only catch on red like now. great catches on red and yellow. and ultra balls would be like master balls and always catch them. i hope someone at least takes this into consideration.

Sam, could you possibly make hone claws a tm? Because I would really love there to be some move that could buff accuracy that more pokemon could learn. If that's not possible, oh well, I was just wondering if that could work.

Hey Sam, I think that the pokeballs with different catch rates is a great idea! I do, however, sympathize with those who say that it would be unfair if you found a rare pokemon only to have it go offscreen because the pokeball failed. So what if you did all the levels like in Cinnabar Island, where the pokemon never disappear until you either kill them or capture them? And the level doesn't end until either all the pokemon disappear or all of your pokemon faint? That way, if you find a rare pokemon, you still have to use skill to weaken it without killing it, like in the games, but people won't get frustrated because it ran off screen, which we can't do much about if the pokeball keeps failing.

I can already tell that no matter what you pick to do with pokeballs a large amount of people will be upset with the choice. I had a thought on what I think is a pretty good compromise.I think that like you have it now you can make it so you have unlimited normal pokeballs and pokemon are always caught when they have red HP, but you can make it so you can try to catch a pokemon when it has higher HP just it is a thing of chance instead of for sure. You can also put in better pokeballs that give a better chance of catching pokemon who still have green health, but with these you have to buy them and thus you also have a limited amount. I think this solution has a little of what everyone wants so you can please as many people as possible.

Sam, when I was in the Daily Code in the Pokemon Center, I had finished the latest level but when I pressed the Rare Daily gift, it said I was not eligible for this code and when I came back, it said "You already bought a Daily gift today, come back tomorrow for another one". I have been so frustrated about it. Please do something about it!

I just wanted to know... Will the game be based off of Gold/Silver or HG/SS? There are different pokemon available in certain areas. For example, right after the first gym the route there has a patch of grass in G/S where you can get Growlithes, but the grass isn't there in HG/SS. Just wondering.